Good morning and Happy Washington’s Birthday,
“Books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can abolish memory... In this war, we know, books are weapons. And it is a part of your dedication always to make them weapons for man's freedom.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt
OPEN TO CRITICISM
I’ve been writing these Musings for three years now. I welcome criticisms, corrections, and different perspectives. Sometimes, for the life of me, I don’t understand the complaint (see the first example below). Sometimes, however, I go too far or generalize too freely (see the second example below). Curiously, both of these examples come from the same reader:
SOMETIMES IT’S JUST NON-SENSICAL
When I noted that Mr. Trump had received a subpoena for the documents he took from the White House and that he ignored that subpoena, my friend had this to say:
“In case I’m missing something, the articles you sent clearly state that Trump was issued a subpoena, but nothing that states he / his lawyers didn’t cooperate with the subpoena. No evidence that his lawyers lied and you seem to conveniently ignore the background of the judge that issued the warrant.”
I’m not sure what to make of this misstatement of the facts. There was a subpoena. There was a lack of cooperation. Mr. Trump’s lawyers incorrectly said all the records were returned. Trump lied about declassifying them, simultaneously claiming his ownership of the documents. He didn’t return them and then claimed they were planted. These are not facts and they are not in dispute.
Then he makes the following inexplicable claim:
“Regarding the sources for the musings in general: I’m still astonished how last year you stated in such a strong tenor that unvaccinated people should be removed from society, by not being allowed to participate in ANY activities open to the public. The musings preached as if you were an expert on the science of the MRNA vaccines. You clearly didn’t know what you were talking about at the time and the evidence over this past year continues to come out of the failure of the vaccines that you were such a strong proponent of. The musings are clearly much more geared at advancing an agenda rather than offer any serious minded analysis.”
Again, I’m not sure what to say. The vaccines saved lives. There is a cottage industry claiming that people who were vaccinated represent a greater percentage of deaths than those who were not. That people will di after being vaccinated is a fact of life. Over 2/3 of Americans were vaccinated. Inevitably, we will all die and, therefore, 2/3 of all deaths from here on out will be of vaccinated people. As to whether there are untoward reactions to the vaccines, I’m sure this must be the case in some small number of cases, as it would be in any circumstance with any vaccine or medical procedure. But, with literally billions of vaccines having been administered and relatively few examples of where there were bad reactions, one reasonably can conclude that its deleterious effects were de minimus.
I would note that, as the pandemic fades into our memories, we will hear refrains of “it wasn’t really so bad” and “it was all blown out of proportion.” This narrative ignores the facts.
THEN AGAIN, SOMETIMES I’M WRONG
During the height of the pandemic, I maintained that everyone eligible for the vaccine had a duty to take it or suffer limitations on their activities in public (including the use of public transportation and the right to attend public events). I stand by the general rule of that position, but I acknowledge that I may have gone too far.
My friend noted to me that he has a medical condition that made it impossible for him to receive the vaccinations. He said that I was too unyielding and that I should have acknowledged that those with medical conditions should be exempted. He took my comments as insensitive to those who were ineligible to take vaccines. Mea culpa.
AND SOMETIMES I MIGHT SEEM UNFAIR
I repeatedly have maintained that the extremes in politics are unhealthy, that populism is a thinly covered excuse for favoring one group over another, and that extremism does not produce legislation—only more extremism.
Some conservative friends have taken me to task for not balancing some of the more inflation-inducing, wealth-destroying over-spending from the recent spree that continues to expand our national debt. Fair enough. The Democrats seem bent on spending a lot, sometimes with gusto. But the Republicans, formerly the party of fiscal discipline, are also big spenders—both in pork-barreling their pet expenditures and in expanding tax breaks and loopholes for their supporters (see, e.g., the carried interest exemption, the step-up upon death, and lack of progressivity for the super wealthy, among others). We could be more disciplined and responsible on both fronts.
The reason I have been leaning hard against the right is that they continue to undermine public confidence in our elections and our federal law enforcement agencies, they court voter suppression when little in the way of widespread fraud has ever been proven, and they don’t condemn those among them who associate with racists, antisemites, and QAnon conspiracists. In many states, they work to restrict voting by the young, the poor and people of color, and they remain, as yet, unwilling to take material steps to limit the explosion (pardon the pun) of guns and ammunition. They have packed the Supreme Court with Justices who rule with religious certainty coupled with bizarre readings of founders’ intent and history (and who seem unwilling to self-police recusing themselves in events of conflict). Until they return to the mainstream, the Republicans pose the greatest risk. That could change and, if it does, I’ll be as unsparing of others who challenge our Constitution, our democracy, and our shared sense of decency. I can’t wait for the day when I again can split my ticket and vote for patriots and moderates from both parties.
THE JEERING IN CONGRESS
As I wrote last week, there was a lot of yelling of “liar” and other epithets at Joe Biden during the State of the Union. Never mind that he did not lie. There are a number of Republicans on record to cut back Social Security and Medicare. So they were wrong but, more than that, they were just plain rude. None, of course, was as bad as Ms. Marjorie Taylor Greene, holding her hands at either side of her mouth, to amplify her repeated screams.
A conservative friend of mine pointed out that Democrats had booed President Trump in his State of the Union. It is true that during the 2018 State of the Union, he was booed for citing “chain migration.” But they were boos—not epithets. It is true, however, that there was a Democratic representative who yelled “liar” (my recollection was that Mr. Trump in fact was lying). The bad behaviors started with Representative Joe Wilson shouting of “you lie” during President Obama’s 2009 State of the Union address. Ironically, it was later confirmed that the matter that got mr. Wilson all fired up in fact was truthful.
I’m willing to accept a boo now and then. But I think the yelling and name calling is uncalled-for. Everyone needs to be more civil. Arguing that it happened before is not an excuse. In any event, the prior shenanigans pale in comparison with the outbursts and performative anger of the Republican right-wing that is holding the “mainstream” hostage.
Happy day,
Glenn
From the archives:
I am somewhat surprised that someone with the views of your "critic" actually read your postings. They tend to stay inside their information (misinformation?) bubbles. I thought it was interesting that they included an allusion to the background of the judge involved in the Trump case as though that was all you needed to know. In my experience, factual refutation of his arguments either ends the conversation or raises the temperature without acknowledgement of your facts or agreement.